"Imagine that you arrive as a tourist in some exotic country, take a taxi to the hotel. When you get there, the driver does not accept the money, but calls the policeman, and when you talk to the policeman it turns out that you were stung with counterfeit money. You are so close to going to jail in some third world country, looking at your wife Shrek wants to check into the hotel and rest from the long flight, and your kids are dying to jump in the pool at the hotel, and you just don't have the heart to tell them that all the savings for the trip are gone.
"But what are you going to do - ruin their vacation? Absolutely not, you're going to smile at them and say 'come on, sweeties, have fun'. But inside you know that you're now going to be a slave to the bank with an endless loan just to pretend you're living a week in paradise, while inside you're on fire Go to hell and you have plenty of time and you're on vacation, but this time is bad and you don't enjoy anything, only worries. That's how I feel now - every day is another day in the countdown to the moment when the money runs out, and how do I have any idea where to get the money to live.
"And I get up in the morning and leave the house as if everything is normal, and I go to 'work' by finding a job. In practice, I sit in coffee shops and search and search and there is nothing for what I would know how to do in a factory, there is nothing suitable for my age. And I walk around malls and shopping centers and see how everyone buys and buys everything The time, and I don't understand where everyone has this money to live this excessive lifestyle. And you say to yourself - how is it that everyone is on the horse, making money from money, and only I fell out of the game? What did I do that it fell on me?
"I was the best in my life, I wasn't a bad worker. Believe me, it was really important to me to do the job properly, and my managers were satisfied. But 'it's not personal,' they said, 'this is the time,' and they smile at you, but in the end You realize that somewhere in the world some human being is sitting in front of his Excel, and he suddenly transports you from the land of the good life you didn't know you were living in to the land of 'go find yourself.' And suddenly you realize how fragile and standing on dust everything is, and what it means to be says in the column. And the worst thing is that I can't even be mad at him. Because voila, he's also doing his job, and at the end of every business you have to make a profit, and when you don't make a profit, then you cut back.
"It's as if the doctors are telling you, 'Either we amputate the leg, or the whole body will go.' I manage to fall asleep from the anxiety of how I will find a job, and I am going crazy with the thoughts of who will hire me at my age. I have given so many years to work, and it gives me a few months to adapt, but adapt to what? How do you adapt to the loss of your value as a human being? It feels as if all the years I worked were forgotten there were.
"And how long can I live on the rest of my savings? And what will happen next? They tell me, 'There is no unemployment now, there is a lot of demand for workers,' but that's not true. There is a lot of demand for workers, and I've actually already considered working at a supermarket for minimum wage, But it's both a huge drop in the standard of living and it's humiliating, and believe me, I'd still get over the humiliation of doing robot jobs, but it's the salary that's more humiliating - who can live on minimum wage with a family and children?
"And people advised me: 'Get vocational training, start a business and be independent.' . So what have I done about it if I'm in an even worse situation? I'm desperate because I can't find a job, and without a job you're not really a member of society, you're just a lump of meat lying in the middle of the race and everyone is passing you by. I don't know what I'll do if I don't find one. Between us, there are moments when, honestly, if I didn't have children, I really don't know what I would do with myself. Now do you understand why I'm ashamed, I don't want them to know who I am, and I definitely don't want to be interviewed for an article about 'The New Fired People'?"
***
"My friend, I'm not the fired person you want to talk to. If you're looking for tire burners in front of the factory gate - you've come to the wrong place. It's true, I worked for the company for almost ten years, I did projects, it was a good time. So now I've been fired because they're cutting back at one place, but We live in the future - when downsizing in one place opens in another. My knowledge and experience are needed, so I'm not worried at all. I'm pretty sure I'll find a new job pretty quickly.
"By the way, I really don't understand why you're asking if it will be a problem for me to find a job in the center
Whoever gave you my number is not up to date at all.
I have long lived in the center and not in the south.
It seems irrelevant to me to put me in the same rubric together with the 'newly fired'.
Thank you and good day".
***
"It is difficult for a Bedouin woman to leave the house. It is not usual for us to go to work like this. The husband works, brings money, the wife is at home with the children. But what happens to those whose husbands have gone? At the factory they talked to the municipality and arranged for us to work. There was even a place to put the children in kindergarten while I I work. It was good from God. I never worked in a factory. It was good to go there every day, to leave the house and come home without thoughts.
"I liked doing the things at work, I felt it was a gift for me. The best thing was that I get the money, and that it's my money. I don't have to ask anyone for money like a little girl asks her father. At the factory we were treated really well. They gave us a lot, including lunch , also gifts for the holidays. But now there is no work. The people at the factory are helping and trying to help, but there is no more work like this in our city, or any work at all, so where will we go? Who will accept a Bedouin woman like this?
"Now it's a problem, because I don't have what I had before. It's even worse, because I want to never ask anyone for money again. And I'm at home and I look at the clock, and the clock is not good for me. All the time, the time is bad, and I just think how to make it good. I talk to friends, women in groups, and they're all like that. But no one will say anything to anyone. They're all just thinking about how to get them back to work, and no one will say a bad word, or tell you how they feel, or talk to the newspaper about the newly fired people, because they want to be reinstated. If they talk, they might not be reinstated at all, which is what they want most in the world. Work is freedom, and who wants to be unfree again?"
***
This week it was announced that the Negev is on the brink of another and particularly wide wave of layoffs.
After the layoffs at Intel Kiryat Gat and Teva, another layoff move also began at Sodastream, and it is estimated that this is only the first, and that some of the large chemical plants will also join the move.
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